Viridian Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRDN) has announced the appointment of Jeff Ajer to its board of directors. Ajer, who most recently served as the Chief Commercial Officer at BioMarin Pharmaceutical, brings over 25 years of experience in driving commercialization for rare diseases and specialty medicines. During his tenure at BioMarin, Ajer had direct responsibility for the launch of 5 brands and played a pivotal role in establishing the company's commercial infrastructure and global footprint.
In addition to this board appointment, Viridian also disclosed the approval of non-qualified stock options to purchase 220,750 shares of the company's common stock to 14 new employees as inducement grants. These grants were approved by the majority of the independent directors on the compensation committee and are subject to vesting over a four-year period.
Viridian is currently focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing potential best-in-class medicines for patients with serious and rare diseases. The company's expertise in antibody discovery and protein engineering has enabled the development of differentiated therapeutic candidates for previously validated drug targets in established disease areas.
The company is advancing multiple candidates in the clinic for the treatment of patients with thyroid eye disease (TED). This includes the pivotal program for Veligrotug (VRDN-001), which has reported positive topline data from two global phase 3 clinical trials (THRIVE and THRIVE-2). Viridian is also progressing VRDN-003 as a potential best-in-class subcutaneous therapy for TED, with two ongoing global phase 3 pivotal clinical trials, REVEAL-1 and REVEAL-2.
Moreover, Viridian is advancing a novel portfolio of neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) inhibitors, including VRDN-006 and VRDN-008, which have the potential to be developed in multiple autoimmune diseases.
Viridian's significant developments reflect its commitment to advancing potential best-in-class assets across its thyroid eye disease and FcRn portfolios, as the company continues to make strides in the biopharmaceutical space. As a result of these announcements, the company's shares have moved -2.4% on the market, and are now trading at a price of $11.7. For the full picture, make sure to review Viridian Therapeutics's 8-K report.
